


Pair Number 3

by extra_Mt



Series: One-shots [15]
Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Coven
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-06 07:58:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18846877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extra_Mt/pseuds/extra_Mt
Summary: College AU. Misty Day is the girl Cordelia would do anything to avoid. But after getting paired up in English class and learning about the girl, she begins to actually love the very thing she initially hated about Misty.





	1. Chapter 1

From the moment Cordelia read the syllabus on the first day of class, she dreaded this day. It was the week after the mid-terms, and she would give anything to time-travel to the finals week.

"Group project," her creative writing English teacher read the syllabus aloud in his monotonous tone. "As the part of requirement for this class, the students are required to participate in a group project in pursuance of better understanding of not only their own, but others' writing."

And he continued to talk about the goals for this stupid project and what not. The students had to read each other's work and give them advice. They had to take into account the advice and improve their papers. Basically he didn't say anything Cordelia hadn't already read on the syllabus and couldn't recite by heart.

This is absolutely a huge waste of time. She buried her head in her hands, glaring at her own syllabus the teacher had told the students to bring.

"Okay, so—" The teacher, Mr. Gordon, took his notebook out and ripped a page out, jotting down something as he spoke. "I need to apologize in advance that I forgot to revise the syllabus. This class is relatively small, so instead of groups, you'll be working in a pair."

The blonde student shot her head up, wide-eyed, her forehead twitching.

_That's worse than a group! What if I was paired with a f**king moron? It's not even an apology in advance. This English teacher can't use English properly for crying out loud._

If there was anything she hated more than stupid people, it was working with stupid people. She was the kind of person who despised relying on others. And yes, she was the kind of person who censored her own internal monologue.

Gordon held a tiny red bucket in the air. "Okay So, here's how it works. There's fourteen of you in this class, which means there'll be seven pairs. You pick one out of this,"—he held a small folded piece of paper between his chubby fingers—"and you look for the person who has the same number. That person will be your partner for the rest of the semester. Okay, here you go." He passed the bucket to the girl who sat in the rightmost seat on the front row.

Cordelia sat in the opposite corner of the classroom, and it was obvious she was going to be the last one to have the bucket. The best things said often come last. She sincerely hoped so. But when the bucket finally came to her, there was not just one, but two pieces left inside.

After giving the toy bucket back to Gordon, she sat back in her seat, waiting for her partner. The paper in her hand said number 3. Her eyes scanned the room as the other students formed pairs, and within a minute everyone sat with their partner, except for Cordelia.

"Okay, if you found each other, I want you to write down your pair number and your names on a sheet of paper. You can exchange your numbers afterwards." Gordon said and walked closer to the lone blonde.

Cordelia straightened her back. "I can work on my own."

"Oh, no, you do have a partner. Don't worry." He smiled, oblivious to the student's fervid wish to maintain her partnerless status. "Just write down your number and your name."

Glaring at the back of the teacher as he walked away, the blonde let out a not-so-subtle sigh. She looked around to figure out who her partner might be, though it felt like a fruitless act. Her level of indifference toward her classmates was so high she wouldn't know who was absent and who wasn't.

But there was an exception, albeit an unpleasant one.

 _Oh F**K_. As soon as her brain registered the absence of one person, she knew her semester was over.

The door swung open in the middle of the class, and there walked in a girl with wild blonde hair. The hippie. The flowerchild. The girl Cordelia would give anything to avoid.

"Sorry," the girl said to Gordon with a sly smile as she sat in front of him.

"It's alright." Gordon waved his hand, as though being 30 minutes late to class wasn't big a deal. "We were paring up for the group project, and you'll be pairing with Cordelia." His finger pointed at her in the back.

The wild blonde said thanks to the teacher, picked her hippie bag up, and sat next to Cordelia. The heel of her boot lightly kicked the leg of Cordelia's desk as she crossed her long legs. "Hey. So, I guess I'm your partner? I don't know what that means, though." Her giggles were annoyingly optimistic and oblivious. "I'm Misty. What's yo name?"

With her lips tight, Cordelia gave her the sheet of paper.

"What's this?" Misty raised her eyebrows, her smile full blossom in amusement. "Pair number 3. Cordelia Goode. Hmm. Your name sounds a little uptight, ya?" She took a pencil out of the bird nest that was her hair, scribbling her own name before flashing a smile. "But you're living up to your name, I think."

The serious blonde swallowed the urge to storm out of the room. If they would spend the rest of the semester working together, she'd have to learn to dislike the hippie girl less.

...

  
Cordelia's phone vibrated in the middle of her evening class. Her frown deepened when the name of the wild blonde popped up.

- _what's today's hw?_

Exchanging their numbers was a regrettable decision although nearly obligatory. Being the girl that she was, Cordelia didn't have so many numbers in her phone, so it made her feel violated in a way to see the girl's name on the screen.

- **It's on the syllabus.**

- _c'mon halp a girl out. I'm your partner :(_

She let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose to relieve her headache.

- **Dialogue that drives a scene's underlying suspense/conflict. Five pages. Due next Tuesday.**

- _not this thursday?_

- **No.**

- _welp I didn't have to worry about it then. Thanks <3_

Cordelia narrowed her eyes at the last text. The wild blonde obviously believed she had more than enough time, which was not true in the slightest. They had to read the textbook and incorporate the illustrated techniques. The one week given was not for partying.

Not to her surprise, her prediction was proven right when after a week Misty said, "Oh crap, I forgot to do that."

Cordelia couldn't find the energy to roll her eyes. The class objective for the day was centered around the assignment. Not having done it equated to not attending the class.

"That's fine," Gordon said. "Just do it as soon as you can. What you can do today is to tell Cordelia what kind of scene you're planning to write and how you're going to employ the techniques you read in the textbook, okay?"

"Okay." Misty grinned, without a hint of exasperation or anxiety, so relaxed and so stress-free that it stressed the other girl out. She turned to face Cordelia, crossing her legs and kicking the desk again. Countless of beads clattered around her wrist as she held her hand out to Cordelia. "Let's see what you got here, shall we, miss?"

The serious blonde handed her work to the other, full five pages, flawlessly stapled in the left upper corner.

"Neat." Misty raised an eyebrow.

It was basically a purgatorial nightmare to wait while the flower child read her work. For the first couple of minutes she watched Misty's lips twist in a smile, in a frown, and in bizarre indecipherable expressions. Equally eloquent was her eyes, which narrowed, widened, crinkled up, and shone in a matter of twenty seconds Cordelia stared.

It was like watching a child read a kids' book.

The ringed fingers turned the page back to the cover, and Misty beamed. "I like it!" It was an obvious feedback. She moved her chair closer to the other, leaning in, their elbows touching. "Especially right here, when she tells him about her pregnancy."

"It's the peak of the scene." Cordelia leaned away in her seat as the girl's curls tickled her arm.

"I like it. The tension, and the way she reveals it is so sneaky. You are mighty good at it, aren't ya?"

The patronizing tone, as if to praise a kid's drawing, irritated Cordelia. "Well, thanks." She reached for her paper, giving up on more useful feedbacks, but Misty shielded it with her body.

"Ain't done yet," the hippie said. "I like this scene as a whole, but—right here? The guy's wording? I don't know, it feels a li'l forced. Outta place, I guess, slowing down the tempo of the scene. It's like another person got into his body to say this one line, y'know?"

It left Cordelia astounded, her prejudiced underestimate backfiring at her. But her expectations toward this girl were still ground-level low. "I felt that too," she said, playing with her pen. "There just wasn't enough time to revise."

"Very well, then." Misty hummed, pursing her pink lips, drawing a smiley face and a 9.9/10 on the front page, and giving it back to the girl.

The brown eyes of Cordelia narrowed at the doodles, and she erased them with no reluctance, ignoring the whiny protest of the hippie artist. "Your turn. Tell me about your scene."

"Haven't decided on nothing yet." Misty rested her elbow on the desk and her jaw on her palm. "Any ideas?"

Cordelia took a deep breath, silently and patiently. There were just so many things she wanted to yell at the wild blonde, but she kept them in. Calm down, her grades are none of my concern.

"Hold on—" Misty's eyes sparkled as she took her notebook out. "I just got an idea!"

For the rest of the class, Misty jotted down her ideas while everyone else revised their papers. Cordelia would frown sometimes when the hippie girl hummed beside her, but the relative silence put her at ease. But alas, her inner peace was such a fragile bird. She glanced at Misty after her own revision was done, only to find her texting on her phone, the pen and paper abandoned.

It wasn't until Gordon dismissed the class did the girl look up from her phone.

"Wait, what'd he say about the homework?" she asked Cordelia, who had waited to put her stuff away until the teacher's last word.

"It's on the syllabus."

"Who reads syllabi?" Misty snorted, but her smirk shrunk a little when Cordelia threw a dry glare. Shoving her things in her bag, she followed the shorter blonde out of the classroom. "No, I was listening, alright, but what'd he say we should do after writing?"

"Upload it on E-campus. There's a submit box." The brown eyes kept looking straight.

Misty let out an ahhh sound. "Not sure if I know how to use that website. Didn't really use it last semester."

Cordelia abruptly stopped and turned around, people's shoulders bumping into hers. "How did you— how do you check your grades, then? Do you even check? Wait, what year are you?"

Misty gave her V sings with both of her hands. "Oh, wait, that ain't right," she said, and quickly dropped her right hand, only holding two fingers up in total. "What 'bout yourself?"

"Junior." Cordelia began walking away, absolutely fed up.

It was incredulous that someone, despite being a sophomore, still had no idea how to use their school website, where professors posts students' grades and course materials. More ridiculous was that she had to spend her precious time with that person. It was insanity.

"I thought you were younger than me," the wild blonde said, following her like a duckling. "What's your major?"

They walked out of the building, and the October sun welcomed them. Their college was one of the biggest in the state, which meant a large variety of courses and high quality of education, but it also meant walking across the campus a lot.

The older blonde put sunglasses on, already feeling sweat trickle down her neck. "Psychology," she said. "And I happened to have a class in ten minutes. Could you stop following me?"

And she walked away.

...

  
That evening, Cordelia was sitting like a plant in front of a computer in the library. She, except for her fingers and eyeballs, hadn't moved an inch since forever, as it was her rule to finish homework the day it was assigned.

English homework was done, and the last assignment was half done. Then someone tapped on her left shoulder. She turned her head to that way and saw nobody. The seat on her right side creaked.

That hippie girl was grinning from ear to ear. "Hey. What're you up to, doll?"

The library had two wings and three floors each. Cordelia always chose to study in the corner furthest from the elevator on the third floor of the east wing, because it was the most deserted area of all. She liked the quiet, she liked the peace. She was not ready for the girl to destroy it.

Cordelia's eyes returned to the computer screen. "Studying."

"Yeah, me too. What a coincidence." Childish chuckles escaped her lips, and Misty got her chair to align with Cordelia's, the curious blue eyes on the homework. "Child psychological development and self-fulfilling prophecy… Hmm, that's neat. What does that mean?"

The girl's raspy voice was rather loud in the library at 8 p.m. on a Friday night. The few people sitting nearby gave them stern or exhausted looks, thinking Cordelia was an accessory to this destruction of peace.

"Look, if you don't have anything productive to say, just leave me alone," Cordelia said.

With a proud grin, Misty held out a paper. "I finished the dialogue assignment. Wanna read?"

"Would you go away if I did?"

The wild blonde stared at her and smirked, which Cordelia couldn't decipher if it meant yes or no. The older blonde sighed and took the paper, running her eyes through it halfheartedly.

The scene was set in a classroom, with the two characters working in a pair. Very subtle. Cordelia fought the urge to roll her eyes, as she wished not to waste a second on the girl. She suppressed her grumbling all she could, until Person A called Person B uptight in the heat of the argument.

"I'm not uptight!" Cordelia angry-whispered, slamming the paper down on the desk, knitting her brows at the other.

Misty raised her brows, as if the older blonde was throwing a tantrum. "No idea what you're talking about. It's fiction, Delia."

"Don't call me that, and that's bullshit. You can't do this. It's— it's—"

"What? Plagiarism? I stole none from nobody."

"You—" Cordelia searched for words, her hand waving and drawing a furious line between them. "This—you took this and just put it into words. That's cheating."

"Cheating? To get inspired by things that happen in real life? Then you gonna have to start calling most artists cheaters." The little feather earring peeked from between her wild strands as she tilted her head. The low raspy voice and the piercing eyes sent chills down Cordelia's spine. "And your work, too. Don't deny that your life and other people's lives influence your writing. There's no such thing as creating from ground zero." Then, her icy eyes crinkled, a huge grin spreading across her face. "That's my art teacher said. Pretty neat, huh?" Giggling like a child, she tilted her head more to look into the face of Cordelia, who tightened her lips and dropped her gaze. "But if you really don't want James to read this, I can write something else."

In the middle of the mortification, Cordelia wondered for a moment who James was, and realized it was their teacher, Gordon. "No." She feebly shook her head, giving the paper back. "Keep it that way. It's really well-written."

"You think so?"

Cordelia gave her a nod and watched the way Misty's cheeks colored lightly. Conflicting thoughts crept across her mind, that her opinions on this girl had been unfair and incorrect, that she was hating on the girl for something she was not.

"I tried to write like you did, y'know?" Misty grinned. "Your writing's really, really good."

The endearing words tickled something in Cordelia. "That's…nice of you to say. I think yours is just as good , if not better." A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, probably for the first time with the wild blonde around. "And you know what can make it even better?"

"What?"

"Use Times New Roman." Her slim finger pointed at the paper in the girl's hands. "No one takes you seriously if you write in Comic Sans."

The blue-grey eyes gaped at the paper for a couple of seconds, as though she was looking for a single typo. "Oh hey, how'd that happen?" Then she wiggled her brows. "It's prettier this way, though, no?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes, an amazed glint in them. "Yeah, no."

They spent the next thirty minutes semi-together. Misty moved to sit next to Cordelia and revised her paper, while Cordelia worked on her own. People around them left one by one, calling it a night and ready to take a break from school for the weekend.

After having her revised paper checked by the older blonde and receiving a thumbs-up, Misty said, "You hungry? Wanna go grab something with me?"

Although there remained a paragraph or two to write, Cordelia found the offer tempting. But the idea of going somewhere with the younger blonde held her back. Her stomach growled as though it just remembered how empty it was.

Misty smirked. "I'll pay for your food."

Then Cordelia saw it as a chance to surrender.

Walking down the street filled with wasted college kids, Misty led Cordelia to her favorite Mexican restaurant in downtown.

"This one's my favorite." The girl's ringed finger pointed at a picture of a burrito.

Cordelia leaned in and narrowed her eyes at the three red peppers below the picture. No way she was going to get that. Spicy food was never a friend to her.

Misty must've seen her reluctance, because she looked into her face with that Misty Day smirk. "Reaaaally spicy stuff. I don't think you could even swallow one bite."

So Cordelia decided to have that.

With a victorious grin, the wild blonde took her wallet out of her bag, checking the number on the cash register. She counted her cash, more than once, but no matter how many times or how hard she counted, it always gave her the same answer. It wasn't enough for both of them. Eventually she crouched down on the spot, rummaging through the bag, not minding her notebooks scattered about on the floor.

"Do you want me to pay?" Cordelia took her card out.

"No!" The blue-grey eyes glared for a second, before she shifted her attention back to the inside of her bag. "I know there's a five somewhere." Her lips were pursed like she was fighting tears.

The sight gave Cordelia some unnerving feelings. It was upsetting, not because of the girl's callous manner, but because of the eyes of the other people, looking down on her from their seats, shoving food in their mouths, as though she was a monkey in a zoo.

Cordelia bent forward and handed her a five dollar bill, gesturing towards the cashier boy. "You don't want to keep him waiting."

The girl stared down at it, but eventually decided to take it. They walked out of the place with their orders.

"I get paid like the day after, so I'll pay you back," Misty said.

"You paid for my food. You don't owe me anything."

"But I made you pay. I promised." The wild blonde knotted her brows, tight-lipped, her gaze staring down at her toes as she walked.

A quiet sigh escaped Cordelia's lips, and then she stopped walking. "Fine." The brown pierced into the blue-grey. "You will give me five dollars back if and only if, um—"

"If?"

"If… I could finish this." She held out the bag with her burrito in it. "No, wait—that's the other way around. You will pay me if I couldn't finish this burrito, because I certainly can and I will."

"What? That's—you're altering the rules to your advantage. That's literally cheating."

"Shut up. Are you in or not?"

The wild blonde gawked at her, bewildered, trying to make sense of everything. Then, the corner of her mouth turned upward. "You are very weird."

"I am not!"

The defensive tone of the older blonde made her giggle even more, making her forget how upset she was a moment ago about money. "You're gonna need a gallon of milk," Misty said.

...

  
After wandering around on the campus, they decided to eat on top of the hill behind the library, where they could look over the downtown. The summer breeze made their hair dance, cooling down their skin that shimmered with sweat.

Cordelia took a small bite out of the quesadilla Misty'd gotten herself, drinking water every five seconds to relieve the burning in her mouth, while the hippie girl devoured the three-pepper burrito that Cordelia had given up after two bites and a half.

"You're weak," Misty said.

Cordelia narrowed her eyes as she took another sip of water, her lips tingling and buzzing. "Shut up." She took another sip.

Even from the hill, they could hear the music and the roars and the cheers of students having the time of their lives. Their college was infamous for its party culture, and to those party people, the weekend started on Wednesday. Friday nights were practically the peak of the mayhem.

"You don't look like a party person," Misty said after learning all the information from the older blonde.

"Because I'm not. But before I moved here, my mother bought me a house near the dorms. There are a lot of Greek houses there, too."

"Wait, what?" The wild blonde widened her eyes, her Burrito-filled mouth agape. "She bought you a house?"

"Yeah. She was like, it'll be much cheaper than paying the rent for four years, Delia." Cordelia lowered her voice to mimic her mother, rolling her eyes at the end of the ingenious reenactment. "Little did she know the area was called the Vegas."

"Delia. Is that what your mama call you, Delia?" with a lop-sided smirk, Misty asked, which received a scowl. "What? What 'm I supposed to call you, then? Cordelia sounds sooo uptight. And Cordy is like…Corgi, and you're more like a cat than a puppy."

Shaking her head, Cordelia remained quiet, determined not to be affected by the girl's unconstrained free-spirited nonsense. It was an unfamiliar thing to her, that spontaneity, the way the wild blonde seemed to float so freely around the world. It piqued her interest, but it was like being curious about a wild carnivore. She had to be careful, otherwise it'd only result in injuries.

"Dee!" Misty's squeal echoed in the deserted campus, bouncing against the buildings' brick walls.

"Huh?"

"How 'bout Dee? I sure like the sound o' that."

Cordelia chewed on her quesadilla, a hint of amusement tugging at the corner of her mouth. "You are weird."

"I am. But you're weirder." Misty grinned. "And weaker."

Cordelia got her five dollars back three days after that evening. Misty got an A on her dialogue assignment.

...

  
Despite her initial anxiety, Cordelia had come to love the English class over time. More than any of the classes she'd ever taken, in fact. The start was tough for sure, but nothing particularly bothered her after teaching Misty how to use E-campus.

The one time they had an assignment to write fiction, the wild blonde again used their shared moments for inspiration. Some parts were exaggerated, some were completely made up. But it didn't frustrate Cordelia like the first time, and in fact she found it extraordinary, even wished they had really experienced those things together, not just in the fictional world, where they were simply Person A and Person B.

The girl was still late to class and forgot to do homework from time to time, leaving Cordelia with no feedback on her papers as well. But the frequency of those bungles had decreased without a doubt, and it was satisfactory enough for Cordelia to stay calm.

Each week, she learned about Misty's life little by little, sometimes through their conversations, sometimes through her writing. At an early age she lost their parents in a car accident, which led her to live with and be raised by her religious grandmother. Because of her orphan state and her eccentricity, she was an easy target of bullying in high school. What got her through tough times was Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. Although Cordelia couldn't be sure if all of this was true as the girl had a tendency to exaggerate, it squeezed her heart every time nonetheless.

Cordelia herself had been very truthful, not that she could lie. She wrote and told Misty about her broken family and cheating mother, being the teacher's dog everyone shied away from in high school. All of those soul-baring secrets that would've killed her with mortification if it had been anyone but Misty.

They were the oddest pair in anyone's eyes, including their own eyes, and they were the most compatible somehow, compensating each other's imperfections.

- _meet me in the cac_

Cordelia received a text from the wild blonde on a sunny day.

The Creative Art Center was located on the edge of the campus, isolated from the cluster of buildings most students used.

- **I'm by the weird blue statue near the main entrance.**

she texted, hoping to be rescued soon. Having taken no Art class, Cordelia had never been inside the CAC, and standing inside the alien building made her feel quite out of place.

"Dee!" Misty ran up to her as soon as her mischievous blue-grey eyes found the fidgeting blonde. Her long legs and taut stomach were hidden under worn-out overalls, quite contrary to her usual flashy way of dressing. Seeing the slightly confused look on Cordelia's face, she grinned and twirled on the spot. "I look cute in them, don't ya think?"

"It's certainly a different look." Cordelia cocked her brow, never giving what the girl wanted to hear.

Misty led her through the cold hallways like it was her home, which seemed utterly impossible to Cordelia as the building was called a labyrinth by many.

"So, I haven't told you, but I'm an art major," Misty said.

Cordelia had seen her bring a huge canvas to their class more than once. One time, she even found the tip of her wild curls covered in blue paint. It had become her habit to watch the wild blonde draw rather meticulous doodles on her notebook while Gordon was speaking, and lately those doodles seemed mainly of the older blonde herself.

"Yeah. I sort of figured that out," she said.

"Okay, but you cannot guess what my final project for my sculpture class is."

"Oh, so that's why you're dressed like that? Sculpture, huh?" Cordelia took a brief look at the outfit, spotting some dried paint here and there.

After some turns and doors, they walked into a room at a cul-de-sac of the labyrinth. In the huge art room were several other people, all dressed similarly, working on whatever. Misty led her through, greeting others as she made her way, stopping in front of a huge chunk of wood in the corner.

As they came near the sculpture, Cordelia could make out the details of it. It was a bust of a woman. The flow of hair was rough, the bridge of the nose a bit high, the forehead narrow. But all of them were sculpted finely enough for her to know it was her, the eyes half-closed as though gazing down at something.

"Ta-dah!" Misty proudly stood next to it, grinning from ear to ear as the older blonde gawked at her wooden self. "Impressed yet? Of course, it's not even close to finished. It's just an outline, you see?"

"That's— it me." Pleasantly surprised, Cordelia forgot for a moment how to speak with proper grammar.

"I write about you in the English class, right? So I figured I should just make everything about you."

Cordelia let out a dry snort. "Right, because less time to decide on a theme."

"Exactly!" Misty said. "You like it?"

"Honestly? Yeah, I do. I think—I think you're really talented," the older blonde said. Then, it finally dawned on her why the girl was always drawing her in the class. She'd thought it was just Misty's innovative way of annoying her and killing time in class, but it was so much more. Something tickled inside her chest as she watched the wild blonde pick up her carving tools. "It's really good…but you know what can make it better?"

"Use Times New Roman?"

"Yes, please by all means, do use Times New Roman if you could." A sting of chuckles escaped her lips as she shook her head, scrunching her nose up. "I was saying, if you want to make it more realistic you have to make it a little, you know, uglier."

"Just a little?" Misty raised her eyebrows, which earned a smack in the upper arm. "Hey hey, careful. I got weapons in ma hands!" She held her hands up in the air, and with her distinctive smirk she shrugged the advice off. "I ain't changing nothing. This is exactly how I see you. Your eyes, your nose, your lips."

"Go get glasses." Cordelia giggled, biting on her bottom lip the way she always did in awkward situations. Her face was hot, she could tell.

"You're blushing!" The blue-grey eyes twinkled as she let go of her tools, coming close to the shorter blonde, cupping her cheeks in her warm hands. "Little Dee is blushing."

"I'm just embarrassed by your weirdness."

"Thanks. You're weak, doll." Misty winked.

"Shut up."

When the hands let her go, Cordelia immediately missed the warmth.

...

  
After the wild blonde was done with her work for the day, they went to the Mexican restaurant, got themselves some burritos, and ate on the bench on top of the hill. It was their routine lately. Every time, Cordelia ordered the three-pepper nemesis of a burrito, and Misty, knowing she would have to eat that hot burrito eventually, got something non-spicy the older girl could eat.

With her upper lip perched on the edge of her water bottle, Cordelia texted someone on her phone.

"Who you texting?" Misty asked, and after making sure the brown eyes looked at her, she covered her mouth with a hand, making a fake-appalled face. "Other project partners?"

"I don't have other project partners. It's just my mom." She put her phone down and watched Misty slurp her banana milkshake. "Do you?" she asked.

"Do I what."

"Have other partners?"

The wild blonde crossed her legs, putting her elbow on the backrest of the bench. "Oh yeah. I have tons of partners. There's Jackie, Robbin, Queenie, and… They are all suuuch sweet people by the way."

The brown eyes narrowed. "Why do I feel like you're saying I'm not sweet?"

Misty shrugged, a sarcastic smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "You hated me." Then her smile fell. "Wait—hated or hate?"

"I hated you because you were rude," Cordelia said as she gave her a frowny smile. "Always late to class, forgetting to do homework, calling me uptight."

The wild blonde rolled her eyes like Cordelia would. "Fine, fine. What changed your mind? My beauty? My charm? I bet it's my charisma."

Then the older blonde rolled her eyes, like an expert that she was. "Yes, your Majesty. All of the above."

"Very well, then."

Cordelia received a text from her that night after they'd gone home, telling her to check out the English homework the girl just submitted online. The assignment of the week was to write a poem mimicking the style of a published poem of their choice.

The beginning of the paper stated that Misty had chosen _Bear In There_ by Shel Silverstein.

_Queen In There_

_There's a Cajun Queen_

_In the Atelier—_

_She likes it 'cause it's serene in there._

_With her feet in the woodchips_

_And her strands in the sky_

_And her brushes and silver gouges_

_On the wooden statue,_

_She's carving the shoulders,_

_She's whittling away at the cheeks,_

_She's caressing the hair,_

_She's chiseling the lips._

_And she gives you a scowl_

_If you come close to them._

_And it sends me a shiver_

_To know she's in there—_

_That Cajun Queen_

_In the Atelier_.

It made Cordelia laugh, not just once, but every time she remembered it. Because of that delightful distraction, she had to give up sleep that night, and despite of having done her homework already, she decided to write another poem.

About a wild bird she had tamed.

...

  
"Dee? Wanna do something fun?" Misty asked on one Saturday afternoon as they strolled down the riverside trail.

"Does that include some illegal activity?"

The girl took a couple of seconds to think, pursing her lips and tapping fingers on her thigh. "Nope," she said.

Although the answer did nothing but increase her apprehension, Cordelia let the girl march to wherever she had in mind. They strayed from the trail and were now walking through the bushes and trees. Misty took her hand as the path became steep and slippery, and they descended to the river. The soft wind stroked the water surface, the sunlight shimmering on the waves.

"I feel so gross. Let's take a dip." Letting go of Cordelia's hand, the wild blonde took her shirt off. She apparently didn't find the idea of a bra much appealing, because there was no more article of clothing under it.

The older blonde looked away, taking an interest in a twig floating on the water all of a sudden. "Someone might see us."

"Ain't nobody gonna come here but us, Dee," Misty said as she removed her shoes.

Cordelia bit her lip. "You know what? I wish I could, but I just remembered I had homework due tomorrow."

The eyes of Misty had a taunting light as she took her shorts and underwear off, her bare ass facing Cordelia. "If you say so, darling," she said, looking at the older blonde over her shoulder. "Better run before the scary river monster can get to ya." With that, she jumped in the water head-first.

The girl on land dashed to the very edge of the bank. "I'm not scared!" she said when Misty's head appeared.

"Oh kitty, it's alright. Everyone has a fear or two or ten or fifty or—"

"I don't have that many fears! And this is certainly not one of them!" On the spur of the moment, Cordelia removed all of her clothes, save the bra and underwear. She tried to get in the water gently, but when her toe touched the water, Misty came closer and dragged her in. A yelp jumped out of her throat before she completely went submerged.

The wild blonde was laughing hysterically when Cordelia surfaced, gasping for air, spitting water out.

"Yes, college life!" The wild blonde threw her head back and screamed to the sky.

"Jesus Christ, what's wrong with you!"

"My name ain't Jesus. I'm Misty Albert Einstein Day!"

"I almost drowned!" Eager for retaliation, she swam closer to the girl, but once they were within each other's reach, she yelped again, holding onto Misty's arms. "There's something in the water. It touched my leg." Her face went pale rapidly as she imagined herself getting devoured by a crocodile.

"It was my foot, silly," Misty said, putting her hand on Cordelia's back, pulling her closer. "But if you're scared, you can go home and do homework for your Scaredy-Cat 101 class." Her smirk grew even bigger when she received a smack in the shoulder. "Oh wait— you are a junior, so maybe you're already taking Scaredy-Cat 401."

Cordelia wanted to smack her more, but Misty caressed her bare back, consciously or unconsciously putting her at ease. And she realized how close and naked they were, limbs tangled, chest to chest, absorbing each other's body heat. "Fuck you," she said, resting her fist on Misty's shoulder.

The wild blonde gently bumped her forehead against Cordelia's, giggling as their nose touched. "I love it when a cute girl curses at me."

The older blonde closed her eyes. "Go to hell."

...

  
The event at the riverside awakened something in Cordelia, and never in her life had she been more confused about her feelings. Now she couldn't look at the girl without the tickling feels inside her chest all the time. Misty's lithe body, the way her wet wild hair stuck to her neck, the little distance between their lips. They all came flashing back to her way more frequently than she'd call appropriate.

Even though everything seemed under control on the outside, it was wreaking havoc inside her heart and mind. And it wounded her sensitive heart to think she was the only one who seemed affected. Misty was ever the same, if not a little more flirty, more tactile, but it was probably the weather that was getting colder by the day.

Lying in her bed, she let out a sigh as she read a text from the oblivious wild blonde.

- _check out my hw!_

She opened her laptop. The topic of the week was free/open, sort of a practice/rough draft for the final paper. It was a 'fictional' story about two girls. Typical of Misty. It was becoming like a series, and she'd been told many times that Gordon was a fan of those girls.

Cordelia, too, loved reading about the girls despite knowing Girl B, who the wild blonde named Cat, was based on her. It was like experiencing their real life conversations and adventures all over again, through the eyes of the girl she adored.

Her cheeks hurt from smiling too much and too long as she read. It was a twenty-page story. She turned the pages, almost halfway to the end. Her pace was rather quick, until she got to a scene where the girls played in a lake. Her smile fell.

"Are you sure it's safe? What if there was something living in there?" Cat said with knotted eyebrows, wrapping her arms around her body.

"Like what, Kitty Cat? Sharks?" Daisy laughed. "Come on, munchkin. I swear there's nothing."

"I told you not to call me that!"

Cordelia had to close the document. She didn't know why, but she couldn't read anymore.

Her phone rang as if on cue, Misty's name on the bright screen.

"Any thoughts on my latest masterpiece?" the raspy voice said. But Cordelia stayed silent. "You there? Hello?"

"I don't like it."

Misty chuckled in Cordelia's ear. "Oh no. What'd I do this time? I thought I used the correct font. Wait—did you secretly watch me write this naked? 'S that it?"

"I'm serious, Misty."

"Of course, you are, darling."

"Misty," the older blonde said it again, with enough coldness to stop the girl from giggling.

"Oh, you really— but— but, why? What—"

Cordelia could practically see the wild blonde scratching her head, confused and slightly panicked. "You wrote about us. The river. You shouldn't have."

"I don't get it..."

Neither did Cordelia. It wasn't like Misty had done anything like this for the first time. There were many times that came before, and it never made Cordelia feel the way she did now. She couldn't figure out why this had to be different, why she was so upset.

And then, she realized it wasn't anger that was squeezing her heart. It was sorrow. Disappointment.

"You know what? Forget it. I'm—" Cordelia felt a lump in her throat, her voice threatening to crack. "I gotta go."

"No. Just tell me. Please," Misty said, but heard nothing but silence. "You at home? I'll be there in ten, ok?"

True to her word, the wild blonde came in ten minutes, not even giving the older blonde enough time to compose herself. She stood in the doorway, panting and sweating a river.

"You ran?" The older blonde creased her forehead as she let her in.

"I don't got no car. And there are college kids getting drunk in the streets. I almost maced one o' them. Fucking swear he was trippin'"

With her lip-biting smile, Cordelia let out quiet laughs, as though nothing had happened between them.

Then, Misty calmed her breathing after a while, wiping her sweat off her face. When the blue-grey eyes looked at the other, there was no playful shine. It was the first time she ever looked at Cordelia like that, without a hint of glee in her eyes, without a teasing smirk. The gaze so serious and penetrating that the older blonde felt her ears burn.

Misty came closer slowly, like testing the boundaries. Her hands rose and cupped Cordelia's cheeks, but the shorter blonde grabbed them around the wrist and lowered them, sighing, but not letting go of the wild blonde.

"What's wrong?" Misty asked. "Tell me."

Cordelia shook her head, forcing a smile. "It's okay..it's nothing. I was just being childish. You didn't have to come all the way for me." She laughed, fiddling with the collar of Misty's sweaty shirt. "Look at you, all sweaty."

The wild blonde took the hand, kissing the back of it. "Cordelia." Misty barely called her that. "Please. I'm— I'm so dumb I can't know how you're feeling unless you tell me."

The skin where her lips touched buzzed, and the older blonde swallowed quietly. "You aren't stupid, Misty, ok? The total opposite of it, actually. You're a smart and sweet person. Anyone who can have you in their life is darn lucky, and I get to be one of them, which I'm really grateful for." A sigh escaped her lips. "But…" She swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat somehow. It made breathing hard. "You have many friends, and probably I'm just one of the many. Probably what happened at the river isn't as important to you as it is to me. But I'm not like you, I don't have a lot of friends, you're the closest friend I have here or anywhere. And… I don't know." Her brown eyes stared down at their connected hands, momentarily mesmerized by the way Misty's rings glimmered. "I didn't want anyone else to read or know about us, about what we shared at the river. I wanted this to be our secret. I'm sorry."

Misty slowly let go of her hand, and cupped her cheeks again, waiting until the brown met with the blue. "You're special to me, do you hear? There ain't nobody like you, Cordelia Goode. You put up with my nonsense, make me feel worthy of somethin'. Nobody like you, ever." Her slender fingers tucked a strand of Cordelia's silky hair behind her ear. "And don't you ever believe for a second that just because I'm willing to share our stuff with other people that I don't care about us. I do care, so much I have to fight everyday not to shout from the rooftops about us for everyone to hear. People have different ways of expressing their emotions. There's no such thing as superior form or inferior form. Any form is valid and beautiful." Then a small, but genuine smile spread across her face. "That's what my art teacher told me."

Feeling those words tickle her heart, Cordelia bit her lip and laughed. "That's neat."

The wild blonde grinned, moving her hand to the back of Cordelia's head, pulling her closer until their foreheads touched. "I love you, kitty."

Cordelia couldn't find any words worth more than this silence, so she nodded, closing her eyes as Misty pulled her into a hug. When her cheek touched the wild blonde's sweaty neck, she scrunched her nose up and giggled.

"Ewww, Misty, you're all sticky!" She held her at arm's length.

The sweaty blonde caught her by the wrist. "Imma get you sticky, too!" She pulled her in and rubbed her cheek against Cordelia's.

The ever silent house was filled with giggles and delightful screams for the rest of the night.

...

  
The fall semester was over. Cordelia passed all of her courses with A's as usual, while Misty was proud not to have failed any course. After promising to spend some time together during the winter break, the older blonde went home for a week.

It was possibly the longest they ever spent apart from each other. Only a week, but to Cordelia every second felt longer than a day. Having had no close friend besides Misty, the older blonde didn't know if this was how people felt about their best friends.

Goosebumps covered her skin as she walked down the hallway to Misty's apartment. It was the night of Christmas, almost the end of it.

Her eyelids were threatening to close completely after driving for three hours from her home. It had crossed her mind that the wild blonde was already asleep, tired of waiting for her, but she'd promised to drop by. The idea of her Misty spending the holy night alone in her apartment was too unbearable.

With her shaking hand, she knocked on the door. When it swung open, she didn't have the time to even greet as Misty pulled her in for a tight, tight hug.

"God, thought you'd never come," Misty said, her face buried in Cordelia's hair.

"Sorry, the traffic. I drove as fast as I could."

"I missed you. So damn much. Thought I was gonna die."

Cordelia ran her hand up and down the girl's back. "It was only a week, Misty."

"I was running low on my kitty. I die if I don't get my daily dose of you. It's doctor's orders." The wild blonde nuzzled further into the crook of her neck, humming as their hearts beat in sync. "How was your week? Spent some time with your mama?"

"She was too busy to see her only daughter apparently. It's Okay, though. She gave me lots of money to compensate. How was yours?"

"Work. Work. Work. And— oh!" Misty suddenly lifted her face, the blue-grey eyes sparkling. She led Cordelia to the small kitchen, where bowls and boxes were scattered about. "I made some brownies. Want some?"

"Did you put weed in them?"

"Have ta eat and find out." Misty winked, which received a raised brow from the older blonde. Waving her hand, she shrugged. "Nah, it's just regular brownies."

Taking some of them on a plate, Cordelia walked to the living room. Quite unlike the older blonde, who was a great neat freak, Misty was the kind of person who believed tidying up to be a waste of time. The way a half of the couch was covered with the laundry and books spoke volumes. Cordelia sat there, putting some of the stuff down on the floor.

Misty brought two cups of cocoa, joining the other on the couch, stealing some of her brownies.

"I got you some Christmas gifts," Cordelia said as she sipped her cocoa.

She took out a bright blue shawl, which the wild blonde wasted no time to put on and twirled in, and after the girl was satisfied, she gave her a small box.

The sparkle in Misty's eyes intensified at the key inside. "You got me a car?"

"It's my house key, so you could come in anytime you want. And, you know, when your lease ends in summer, maybe you could move in?" It was her way of offering help, as she knew the wild blonde had struggles with paying the rent from time to time.

Misty tilted her head. "Are you asking my hand in marriage?" Her raspy voice was one octave higher in a patronizing tone.

The older blonde shook her head, rolling her eyes. "You wish." She giggled and wiggled her brows the way Misty did.

But the wild blonde looked down all of a sudden, a little grimace between her eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" Cordelia put her hand on the girl's.

Misty's eyes were trained on her lap. "I didn't get you anything…"

"It's fine, Misty. I know you've been busy."

"But…"

"You are here with me. That's more than I could wish for." The older blonde intertwined their fingers. "God knows this is my first time ever to spend Christmas with someone I care about. You know my mother. I was always alone. You are my family, and it's worth more than anything tangible anyone could ever offer."

"You mean it?"

"I mean every single word."

Feeling her heart swell, Misty threw herself into Cordelia's arms.

The older blonde let out giggles as the weight of the girl got too much, both of them collapsing in the couch. Just the moment she thought her smile couldn't get any bigger, Misty always found a way.

After rubbing her cheek against Cordelia's and receiving a halfhearted protest, Misty got up, hovering above her with a devious smirk. "I got you nothing, but it don't mean I have nothing to give ya."

"Oh no, I'm terrified."

Misty hummed in response, and shouted, "Take my gazillion kisses!" Then she began peppering kisses on Cordelia's cheeks, holding her tight by the waist so the wiggling blonde couldn't escape.

"Ewwww." Cordelia laughed out, throwing her head back, (pretending to be) trying to get away. "Oh God, Misty. That tickles! Stop!" Her hands flew to Misty's around her middle.

"Oh yeah? How 'bout this?" Her ringed fingers loosened their grip, and started to tickle her instead.

A laughter mixed with screams filled the room. "I mean it. Stop!" Cordelia was running out of oxygen rapidly. As she was freed from the tickling, she heaved a sigh of relief, struggling to catch her breath. Her cheeks seriously hurt from smiling and laughing, her stomach soon to follow.

Misty got up and grabbed something from the table, straddling Cordelia again. With her impish grin, she held a tiny twig above their heads, dangling it as though she was teasing a dog with a toy. "Oh, what's this, Dee? What do you think this is?"

The brown eyes narrowed. "That's…mistletoe."

"And where are we?"

"…under the mistletoe."

Misty raised her free hand to cover her mouth. "Oh no. Now I'm gonna have ta kiss you on the lips. Sorry, I don't make the rules." Still chucking, she leaned in, only to stop once her lips hovered above Cordelia's. "This is your last chance to chicken out, kitty."

Cordelia could feel the heat radiating from Misty's lips. "Right back at you."

The first kiss was gentle, only lasting for one second. The second one was longer, but still too tentative. The third one taught them the softness of each other's lips.

Cordelia felt dizzy, overwhelmed, and it didn't matter how slow and timid those kisses were. They had time to figure this all out, more kisses than they could ever count. They both breathed out as their lips separated, resting foreheads against each other, listening to each other's breathing.

"I love you."

"I love you, too," Cordelia said.

And she saw the all-too-familiar grin spreading across her queen's face.

"I love you three," Misty said.

"God, you're so weird."

"And you love me for it."

Cordelia hummed, her fingers playing with the wild curls. "You got me there."


	2. Pair of Fools

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Misty pulls a prank on Cordelia for April's fool at Madison's suggestion. But it goes terribly wrong.

 

 

The start was all familiar. But it was the familiarity that could have been a clue, a telltale sign, that things would never go as planned.

It was right after the whole school had come back from the spring break. Misty and her classmates struggled to shake off the recess-mood, doing their best to stay focused with their pencils and sketchbooks in their hands. And the sentiment was shared with Madison too, who sat in a chair in the middle of the room, posing naked for the class.

Misty sat in the back row, where she didn't have to tolerate Madison's various harassments. One time she sat in the front row for a better view, Madison took the chance and just posed with her legs wide open for the class, especially the wild blonde, to draw. Since then, Misty swore to never sit in the front.

Their friendship was only one year old, dating back to their very first day of college life. Both of them stood out amongst their peers from the minute the orientation started, and eventually their outlier-ness led them to bond in an odd way.

But this kind of bonding wasn't exactly what Misty had anticipated or wished for. The teasing got even more annoying since she'd revealed to Madison that she was dating a girl. The dirty blonde said it was for the money, but Mist knew she was too wealthy to care about such a problem. It was just for the fun of it.

"Hey, flowerchild. You got a minute?" Maddison, as she wrapped a robe around her body, walked toward her after the class.

"Hi, Meryl Streep. Yeah, what's up?" Misty grinned at her, shoving her stuff in her backpack disproportionally big compared to her figure.

Madison used to be a child actress with mediocre success ten years ago, and her bad temper was the reason she got kicked out of Hollywood. Most people in school knew it and shied away from her. But Misty liked the unapologetic attitude, and grew to adore her. It was like loving the villain in your favorite fairytale. Even the aspects that people usually frowned upon were somehow lovable to Misty, so much she gave her the patronizing nickname.

The ex-child star shrugged. "Nothing much. Just wondering what you've been up to lately."

"Um, I've been kinda busy with school work. Why?"

"Well, you know." Madison tilted her head, eyes twinkling extra much like a child asking her parent a big favor. "It's gonna be April in two weeks, so…"

"Oh no, Maddi, we ain't doin' it this year."

"C'mon."

"No. I ain't gonna get myself caught doin' stupid stuff like that ever again."

The last April Fool's Day, the university struggled with elusive groups of students playing pranks on people on campus. Cars in faculty parking areas were randomly wrapped in industrial plastic wrap. In the library, some mice were disabled with a piece of tape covering the laser, and there was one stapler nicely imprisoned in purple jello. And the campus heard countless screams and cursing of people who saw spiders and snakes in the most random places.

People laughed at those pranks, shaking their heads as though to reprimand themselves for falling for them. But when the president of the university saw a picture of Kim Jong Un hung on the wall among the previous presidents, it apparently crossed the line. Eventually the UPD got involved to identify those responsible, but they never managed to go further than discovering that all those pranks were executed by no more than a pair of freshmen.

"Okay, but you gotta admit the Kim Jong Un thing was frigging hilarious," Maddison said. "Plus, we actually never got caught, so what's the fuss about?"

"Almost. We almost got caught. I can't risk that, Maddi. My gran would disown me if she found out."

"Well, she doesn't have to know. We can just pull a prank on one person this year, say… your girlfriend."

Misty knotted her brows. "Um…but I always do that to her, though."

She walked around Cordelia's house like an impish house fairy ever since she'd gained free access. It started with classic pranks such as moving the furniture by some inches a day. Cordelia would feel something was off but couldn't point out what exactly it was.

And after developing a taste for the perplexed expression on her girlfriend's face, Misty decided to invest her unlimited energies in pranking her. She'd switched the keys in Cordelia's keyboard ("What the fuck, Misty?"), replaced colored water in a juice bottle ("Shit, what is this? Misty!"), messed with her smartphone so certain words would be autocorrected to Spaghetti Godzilla ("Really? What even is Spaghetti Godzilla?"), changed the language on the same phone ("I don't even understand Arabic. How am I supposed to change it back to English!"), and put a chicken bouillon cube in the shower head ("Misty Day, get your ass right here at once!"). There'd been numerous times where the house was filled with screams, and Misty lived for every single moment of it.

"Then make this one exceptional," Madison said. "So special she would never be able to forget."

"Like… what? You got any ideas?"

The hazel eyes gleamed as Madison curled her lip into an all-knowing smirk.

...

  
Misty had to quit college and move back to Lafayette in order to take care of her ailing granny—not really. But it was the fake reality Cordelia would be presented with for the next two weeks.

"You keep dropping hints," Madison said with her trademark sinister smirk. "And then on April Fool's Day, boom! You will confess that you are moving away and you two will have to be in a long-distance relationship for good."

Lying on the couch in Cordelia's living room, the wild blonde tried to think what she'd do if it happened to her for real. Would she cry? Would she blame it on her grandma? Would she be depressed?

"Busy planning world domination?" a nearby voice said.

Absorbed in her thoughts, Misty half-flinched at the sudden appearance of her girlfriend.

Even after many months since their first kiss, her heart sped up every time she saw Cordelia's smile, heard her voice, looked into those brown eyes, or touched her soft hand. Everything that was Cordelia was intoxicating and never failed to make her feel like she was on top of the world. The way she could turn Misty's world upside-down in a matter of seconds was quite impressive.

"Dee!" She stood up at the velocity of a rocket, a huge grin on her face as she hopped towards Cordelia.

Then Madison's voice echoed in the corner of her mind, reminding her of their plan. "Just act weird." Misty didn't know what that meant or how to do that. All her life, people called her a weirdo, and she'd come to embrace it as her identity. Being weird was her normal.

Standing in front of Cordelia, she spent good several seconds wondering if acting weird could include hugging. Then she shrugged internally and pulled Cordelia in for a hug.

A string of chuckles escaped Cordelia's lips. "What was that?"

"Nothing." Misty shook her head and kissed her. Then she nuzzled into her neck, relishing the feeling of the soft skin against her cheek. "This is so much nicer than cuddling with the statue of you. The wood irritates ma skin when I do this," she said, rubbing her cheek against Cordelia's.

"Okay, weirdo. That's creepy. Don't tell anyone about that."

"I'm weird, but I'm your weirdo." Misty rested their foreheads against each other. "And who wouldn't wanna be the one special weirdo for the girl with wings, yeah?"

"Is that right?" Cordelia said. "What kind of wings?"

"Those black boney wings with holes in 'em." Giggles fell out of her mouth as the quip earned her a gentle blow in the arm. "And who knows, you may have horns, too." Messing with Cordelia's hair, she made a bird nest of the silky hair. "Or them nastily sharp nails." She intertwined their fingers, playing with the tips, and kissing the back of her hand. "Or fangs." Their lips met in a playful kiss. Something between a moan and a giggle escaped Cordelia's throat when the Cajun, looking for sharp vampire fangs, caressed her teeth with her tongue. "Or maybe," Misty said as she let out a contented sigh after the kiss, going back to nuzzle into her neck. "I don't know, you have a tail in your butt." Her hands slithered down Cordelia's back, stopping just above the waistband of her skirt, where she could feel a hint of feminine roundness.

"You certainly know how to win my heart." Twisting a strand of the wild curls around her finger, Cordelia hummed.

The velvety vibration tickled Misty's eardrum. "I would inundate this house with red roses if another second of my life could be brightened by your smile," she said.

"Oh god, when does this sickening sweetness end?" Cordelia bit her lower lip and scrunched her nose. "What's going on? What're you scheming this time?"

The interrogative response pulled Misty out of the euphoric trance and made her pull away from the embrace. It was Madison's order. To be sweeter than usual. "Unleash your inner romantic fool!" Madison's instruction didn't make much sense at first. Even now, saying those words —she thought they were so sweet they'd give her teeth cavities— required some forcing.

As much as her girlfriend might agree to disagree, Misty wasn't a flatterer, and it made her feel like a fish out of water. Her style was to hide her affection under the guise of mischievous pranks. But she had to act her way through like the professional prankster that she was, because this was all for the sake of the biggest prank ever.

"Nothin'," she said.

...

  
Madison's plan was meticulous, and her determination to not let Misty stray from it was as strong as her ego. The wild blonde wasn't allowed to spend a lot of time with her girlfriend, and as if this wasn't enough, sleepovers at Cordelia's were banned. It initially surprised Misty to know the ex-child star was capable of such care to details. Madison was, in a way, a personified version of the dead word YOLO. Meticulousness was the last word Misty would associate with her.

- **Dinner tonight?**

Misty pouted as she looked at the text from Cordelia. She wanted so badly to text back without thinking, to tell her there was nothing more she wanted in that moment. "I wanna see her," she said to Madison, who sat next to her in the cafeteria.

"Nope. Tell her you can't," Madison said, taking a huge gulp of her Vanilla Latte. "If you want the surprise to be real big, you gotta make it realistic."

The ringed fingers of the wild blonde felt heavy as she typed in whatever excuse she had in her small repertoire.

- _sorry, have to see some friends._

- **Okay I miss you though. Maybe tomorrow?**

A pathetic groan vibrated her throat and shook the table she pressed her cheek onto. Although receiving such texts from Cordelia became more and more common, it never alleviated the guilt that ate her up.

"I can't do it, Maddi." The Cajun buried her face in her arms, kicking the air under the table. "I need to see her, or I'm gonna die from Dee Deficiency."

"Calm down, you jellyfish. We only have four days left."

"Four days is enough for a dead body to dry up."

Madison let out a sigh so loud people around them looked at the troublemaker with cautious, but curious looks. "If you're dead. Jesus, why did I even—"

Misty sat up in the seat. "Yeah, why'd ya even? Like, why Dee? You don't even know her." From the beginning, it was rather a mystery, though not a big enough issue to bother her.

"She sounds like an interesting person." And by 'interesting', Madison meant the total opposite of it. "All I ask is to be there when you reveal your 'moving,'" she said, air-quoting with only one hand. "Don't worry. I'll leave you two after you tell her it's a joke, and then you can have steeaaamy sex with her."

"Wha—" Misty widened her eyes, and the banana milkshake in her mouth almost went down her airway, making her cough like an old lady. "What—what are ya—"

"Take it from me, Watson. After a fight or any premonition of breakup, the sex is most likely to be the best."

Misty coughed for the last time and took another sip of her drink, unfazed on the outside, but utterly worked up on the inside. The image of Cordelia, all naked and flushed, flickered in the back of her mind. It was still an incomplete picture with some (very important) parts blurred behind the memory fog.

She'd only seen the bare body once, at the river, before the softness of those plump lips became her favorite thing in the world. The idea of sharing physical intimacy with her never occurred to the wild blonde at that time. She gritted her teeth at the ignorant bliss, and envied her past self for touching and even caressing the expanse of the milky skin without appreciation.

...

  
Then the Day came.

Misty ran out of the classroom as soon as the teacher uttered the last word, practically shoving other people against the walls. She was excited, scared, anxious. The fact that she and Cordelia hadn't seen each other in days was one factor for her beating heart. Another was the surprised expression she'd soon see on the beautiful face of Cordelia. And then there was another, which was, as Madison graciously put, a prospect of a hot make out session.

All these anticipation and apprehension came flooding her at once. By the time she stood at Cordelia's door, her whole body was trembling, her heart on the verge of explosion. And those emotions, bottled up for the past two weeks, found an outlet when she walked into the house and found her girlfriend in the living room.

Cordelia, the girl she'd been yearning for with insane intensity, was sitting on the love seat.

"Hey, stranger," the older blonde said, closing the book. Her petite figure was covered in a bulky sweater that she'd borrowed from the wild blonde. Too bulky, and it was falling off her shoulder. As she sat up, she tucked a lock of her own silky hair behind her ear, tantalizing Misty with the bare skin between her shoulder and neck.

Whether it was because of the teasing smirk or the exposed skin, Misty's breathing suddenly hitched, her cheeks warmer. She threw herself on Cordelia, ecstatic to be able to finally indulge herself in the Goode-ness. They pressed their lips against each other, as though they'd been away for ten years. Their kisses were as innocent as their first ones, but the urgency in the way their arms were wrapped around each other's body was certainly a new element to their relationship.

Misty hummed, burying her face in the crook of Cordelia's neck. Her cheek gave some of the heat to the cold skin of the older blonde. Her ringed fingers played with the rim of the old sweater. Everything felt so right.

"You stole ma sweaterrrr." Her playful complaint was muffled as she further nuzzled into Cordelia's hair, her arms tight around her neck. "'S my sweaterrr."

Cordelia giggled. She brought a strand of the wild curls to her lips and kissed the tip. "No, this is mine now. You never came to claim it."

"I'm claimin' it now."

"Too late."

"Dante said thieves would be trapped in a cave with snakes and lizards in hell."

"Is that right?" Cordelia said.

"Yeah. Scary, right? I don't want that for ya."

"Then why don't you take it off?"

Misty lifted her face, and there she found a pair of mischievous brown eyes. The gaze was provocative, challenging the girl even though she was fully aware of the effect it had on the Cajun.

Misty didn't like that at all. Before their affection had a solid name, it was Misty's job to tease. Something had gone wrong since then, and now their roles seemed to have switched.

With a pout, the wild blonde separated their bodies, sat on the other side of the love seat, and hid her hot face behind her knees. "'S not fair," she mumbled.

"Are you blushing?" Cordelia came closer and tried to get the girl to lift her face, but the wild blonde merely responded with groans. "The Misty I-wanna-make-out-with-you-everywhere Day is embarrassed?" The more the protesting groans from Misty, the louder Cordelia's giggles became.

The wild blonde flung herself at Cordelia, the force strong enough for both of them to collapse on the seat. "Dante said mean people would be chased by hungry bears!"

"I'm sure he does, baby." Cordelia kissed the flushing cheek.

Then there was a rather loud noise outside the house. Both of them stopped fooling around, the four eyeballs wide. It sounded like something hard hit the wooden floor of the porch. But after that, there was only the usual silence, as quiet as a house surrounded by Greek houses at night could get.

"What's that?" Cordelia knotted her brows together.

Misty remained quiet, though she knew what it was. It was Madison, who came to witness the best prank of the century. The problem, though, was that the wild blonde had been so exhilarated to see Cordelia that their plan utterly slipped her mind.

"Dee? I have, um, something to tell you…" She sat up, chewing on her lower lip.

Cordelia put her hand on Misty's. "Actually I do, too," she said. "Well, not something to tell, but definitely something to give you." She pulled the wild blonde off the couch, her brown eyes twinkling like those of a puppy, leading her until they stood at the foot of the stairs. "It's in our bedroom," she said. She planted a chaste kiss on Misty's cheek, intertwined their fingers, and winked. "Go upstairs and put it on. I'll be waiting here."

Heat crept up Misty's chest, which would have invited a sequel to the earlier teasing if her shirt hadn't covered the skin. Cordelia's gestures were innocent, but it was the ghost of the teasing smirk that made Misty have the second thought. If they were in an R-rated movie, this moment would be followed by some naughty scene.

"Put it on? What's it?"

"That's where the surprise is," Cordelia said, gently pushing her with a hand on her back. "Go on. I promise there won't be a monster under the bed."

The wild blonde let out a puff of air. Her own prank could wait a little longer, no matter how much Madison might protest.

She walked up the stairs, turning around a couple of times to look down at Cordelia's elfin face. At the top of the stairs, she heard a distant sound of her phone ringing downstairs, and made a mental note to check it afterwards. After this mysterious surprise and her own.

Entering the bedroom, her eyes immediately landed on a dress placed on the mattress. A beige dress with multiple layers, thistles and birds printed all over. She picked it up, appreciating the way the silky fabric overflowed in her grip, her bottom lip disappearing between her teeth. She brought it to her face and took a deep breath. It smelt like Cordelia. Her heart swelled, so much it was rather hard to suppress her urge to scream and jump around.

She knew, in that moment, that she couldn't bring herself to tell Cordelia about her 'moving'. Even if it was a prank, the brief moment of panic and sorrow Cordelia would surely experience was nothing but real. Fuck Madison. Misty didn't need that kind of thing. They could make each other laugh without pulling such mean pranks. She should've realized that sooner. She should've said no to Madison from the beginning.

After putting the dress on and twirling in front of the mirror once or twice, she went downstairs, where Cordelia waited for her.

"Dee! Dee!" She ran to her, too excited to form any coherent sentences. Her smile grew bigger as she imagined the huge grin on Cordelia's face.

But to her confusion, Cordelia just stayed in the seat without any sign of glee. Her eyes were on the wall, as if she'd forgotten about the wild blonde altogether. In her hands was, for some reasons, Misty's phone.

"Dee? You ok?" Something not so right was in the air, Misty could feel it. She sat next to the frowning girl at a safe distance.

"Why have you been busy lately?" Cordelia asked. Her voice was deeper and eerily calm, a tone the wild blonde had never heard before.

Misty hesitated, opening her mouth and closing it as she tried to decide whether or not to reveal the prank right here. "Um—"

"Because you've been seeing The Mad Girl?" Cordelia spat out the name like it was a popcorn kernel that'd been stuck in her gums for days.

"What—"

The older blonde didn't give her a chance to respond. Her upper lip twitched as if it was going to curl into a glower, the veins in her neck pulsating and undulating. She dropped her searing gaze momentarily to unlock Misty's phone, her thumb gliding across the screen without indecision.

Secrets were a mere concept, a mere word between them. It was not something that had weight in any way, and it'd never grated on the wild blonde to have her password shared with her girlfriend before. She didn't have anything to hide. But looking at the scowl directed at herself, Misty felt like a criminal caught red-handed in that moment.

Cordelia opened the phone app, and while keeping her eyes on Misty, she played a voicemail message.

"Hi, baby," a voice of a woman said, sending a bolt of lightning to Misty's stomach. "Can I see you tomorrow? I miss you already, my baby bunny." It was Madison's voice. There was no doubt about that, and it was all Misty could process before her brain completely liquefied and evaporated. "I miss your sexy smile and your hot body, and God— your voice when you say my name… I know you have to see your girlfriend, but… Call me, ok?" There was an exaggerated kissing sound at the end, and the message ended there.

"So," Cordelia said, throwing the phone on the empty seat between them. "All this time you've been lying to me and you were actually fucking this— who is this!? Who is this goddamn Mad Girl, Misty? Or are you still going to act like you have no idea?"

"No no no. That's—that's Madison. She ain't—"

"Madis—Madison Montgomery!? The Madison Montgomery? That's what you've been screwing behind my fucking back?

Then it hit Misty. All of these instructions Madison gave her. Acting weird, keeping her distance, getting nauseatingly sweet all of a sudden, and losing contact again. Misty had thought she was pretending to hide the fact that she had to move away. But weren't they signs of a cheating partner, too?

This was Madison's prank. She never intended to help Misty play a prank on Cordelia.

"I'm goona kick her ass," Misty said as her hands balled up into fists.

"And I will triple-kick yours for cheating on me!" Cordelia stood up, pacing around the room with the heels of her hands pressed to her temples. "For fuck's sake, I just can't believe you fucking— I don't deserve this kind of disrespect."

"No, please listen to me, Dee. It's a prank. It's—"

"Oh, so that's your excuse? A fucking prank?"

The obscenities, which the older blonde rarely used and had never spat at her, made Misty stiffen. "It's April Fool's Day. She's fooling us both. She's right outside." Feeling her armpits sweating at an alarming rate, she swung her arm in the direction of the window, where they could see the porch. "She's right there, Dee. She's fucking playing a prank on us. Laughing at us right now."

Cordelia stared at her for several seconds. With her chest heaving, she walked to the door and swung it open, stepping outside to look around. "I don't see anyone," she said like a parent pointing out the flaw in her child's lie.

The wild blonde followed her outside. She looked everywhere, behind the bushes, in the shadows, turning over every stone. But the elusive prankster was nowhere to be found.

"I swear to ya. It's a prank." Misty walked back to Cordelia. "You know I'd never hurt you like this." Her hand reached out to Cordelia's, but the older blonde pulled away, folding her arms in front of her chest.

"No, Misty. I don't want to hear your goddamn pathetic excuses." She shook her head and let out a sigh. With weary steps, she walked back into the house, only to turn around in the doorway and lock her eyes with the blue ones of Misty. "If you got tired of me, you could've said so. It's just absolutely cruel for you to— it's just cruel."

"Dee, please. I can prove it."

Cordelia took a step back. "Misty. No. Just no."

"Cordelia."

The brown eyes looked down as the dejected blonde stepped back again, half of her body hiding behind the door. "You have to go."

Then the door closed. Misty stood on the porch, too dumbfounded to think straight. Her stuff was still inside the house, including her shoes. Even if she decided to go home for the night, which would never be her option, there was no way she was walking down the road barefooted.

The wood of the porch had absorbed the coldness of the remaining winter. Chills ran up her legs to the top of her head as she stared down at her feet, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She shouldn't have left the shoes. They would look ridiculous with the dress, but she wouldn't have to be standing outside with nothing on her feet.

The door creaked open.

The blue eyes rose, hopeful that Cordelia had changed her mind. But what she saw between the door and the frame was not a frown or an apologetic smile. It was a smirk. Of Madison.

The wild blonde blinked, as though she just woke up from a dream and didn't know where or who she was. "You— what—"

"Madison, let her in." Cordelia's calm voice came from behind the door and the vexatious smirk.

Brushing past Madison and walking back into the house, Misty still struggled to grasp the situation. Cordelia was shaking in the middle of the room, her lips twitching and quivering as laughter was threatening to overflow. The brown met the blue. And as Cordelia at Madison, the two of them burst into laughter, leaving the wild blonde utterly muddled.

The oldest blonde pulled Misty into a hug. Her lips still quivered as she planted a kiss on her cheek. "Happy April Fool's Day, darling."

"…What?"

Once their laughter died down, they sat down, the two lovebirds in the love seat and Madison in an armchair next to them. Cordelia's warm hand rose to cup Misty's cheek, and the other one took her hand, stroking the back of it with her thumb.

"Oh, look at you," Cordelia said. The tip of her thumb brushed the bottom edge of Misty's eye. "Was my poor darling going to cry?"

The wild blonde glanced at Madison in search of a clue. But all she got was a majestic eye roll.

"I'm still…so confused."

Cordelia let out some soft chuckles. "Madison, would you like to have the honor and explain it to her?"

The dirty blonde sat up in her seat. "Yes, I would," she said, and started to dissect the whole shenanigans for Misty.

It turned out that the mastermind of this scheme was no other than Cordelia, and Madison was simply the accomplice. Madison made Misty believe she was pulling a prank on Cordelia, when it was really the other way around.

In retrospect, the meticulousness of the plan did in fact take her aback a little. It should've crossed her mind earlier that Madison couldn't possibly be capable of this type of mindfulness to details.

When Madison came on the porch, with a big noise to reveal her arrival, Cordelia too was aware it was Madison. With that being the cue, she prompted Misty to go upstairs. And after making sure to separate the wild blonde from her phone, Madison left the voicemail, let herself into the house, hid in the room next to the living room, and videotaped the 'fight' like a savage would do.

"Wait, how do you know each other?" Misty's eyes traveled between the other two.

"We had a class together before. Psychology," Madison said.

"Yeah, it was hatred at first sight," Cordelia said. "But God— I had to work in the same group as her throughout the semester, and I don't know, we just became close somehow."

"So—" Misty scratched her head, still trying to wrap her head around. "You might have ended up with her instead of me?"

Madison knotted her eyebrows, narrowing her eyes as though she'd never heard a more ridiculous thing in her life. "Yeah, thanks for the imagery."

The cocky response evoked some suppressed laughter from Cordelia. She leaned into the wild blonde and wrapped her arms around her waist, resting her chin on her shoulder. "You always pull pranks on me. My revenge was sort of down the road if you ask me."

"But that was so mean," Misty said and stuck out her lower lip.

Cordelia tucked a strand of the wild hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry, baby, but it was time you got a taste of your own medicine." Her eyes crinkled as she played with the hem of the dress on Misty. "I hope my other surprise showed you how much I love you."

The wild blonde looked down at her dress, the pout on her face gradually turning into a shy grin. She interlaced her fingers with Cordelia's. "Yeah, I love your other surprise. This is very gorgeous." She planted a chaste kiss on her lips. "You were real good at acting. So much better than Maddi. I mean, I fell for it, but her acting was awful."

The white teeth of Cordelia shone as giggles fell out of her mouth. "Oh God, I know. It was… and when she called you a baby bunny? I thought I was going to die right there from secondhand embarrassment."

"That wasn't in your script?"

"Nope." Cordelia shook her head. "Her improvisation."

Misty snorted, suddenly feeling smug, appreciative of the new thing to make fun of Madison for. "Well, now we know why she's just an ex-child star."

"I'm right here," Madison said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Fuck, why did I ever think it was a good idea."

Cordelia turned her head around to see the complaining blonde. "Well, thanks for helping me, Madison. I owe you one." She shifted her attention back to Misty and rolled her eyes, chuckling at the tantrum like she was used to it.

The wild blonde buried her face in Cordelia's neck, hiding her grin from Madison. She could feel Cordelia's shoulders shaking with laughter.

"Yeah, whatever. You owe me more than that, dude," Madison said and stood up, walking to the door. "You know why? Because I'm telling you, your feral girlfriend right there—" she pointed her finger at Misty— "is horny as fuck."

Misty's eyes widened. Her cheeks burned immediately as Cordelia gave her an all-knowing smirk, just like the one on Madison's face.

"I told her she could have the hottest sex after the prank, and I bet she's been drooling over the opportunity."

"Go home, Meryl Streep!" The wild blonde bared her teeth, the redness of her face making her look like a little monkey.

"Calm your tits. I don't want to stay, either." Madison puffed, resting her hand on the door knob. "Nobody wants to hear you two bitches moaning each other's name."

The wild blonde threw a cushion at her, but Madison quickly hid behind the door. The door eventually shut, and the clicks of Madison's heels faded away, leaving the couple alone in the house.

"I shoulda kicked her ass." Misty sank in her seat. Her entire body was aflame, and it took all of her willpower to not combust on the spot.

Cordelia rested her elbow on the back of the couch, and her head on her palm. "I don't know. I'd buy her lunch if what she said was true."

Their eyes met, and the way the brown eyes looked into Misty's added another layer of flame inside her.

"You can buy her lunch," Misty said, fidding with the hem of her dress that would soon be left on the floor. "And I will kick her ass."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't believe it's a good idea to pretend to be cheating on your partner even as a joke. It's just as mean as pretending to break up with them. Don't do it, folks!


End file.
